Salt Lake Telegram | 1923-07-20 | Page 19 | State Highway Fund Cases Problem

-STATE HIGHWAY FUND CAUSES PROBLEM Various Aspect of Demand De-mand on Finance Dept. Considered to the department of finance and purchase. TJhe bud gat which the leftelMture provide a In the way of aa approbation Is made for th purpoaa deaia;nated tn the law and cannot be I? sally diverted for any other purpoao. In the matter of ths diversion of tha road fund to th fund of the department of finance and rmr-chaae. rmr-chaae. It Is etatrd thai the diversion diver-sion was to be temporary only, aa It could not levatlv be done. The law la specific In this matter It la declared. In the mattar of th transfer of !50tH from tha state road eommlaalon to tha department of flnancV and purchaae. the fund waa a part of tha road bond laaue i which the lejrlalature authorised la-: la-: eued for on purpoa a lon and that was ths construction of highways. TRAKarBR It wss pointed out at the eapltol today that at a recent meetlnc of tha state board of loan commli-afnnrs. commli-afnnrs. tha matter of a tranafer of 120.000 from one or more of the funds spproprleted for the etate department de-partment of agriculture was suggested sug-gested In order that tha agricultural agricul-tural department might nee the fund to pay the eeeeral agricultural agricultur-al Inapectors In the eeveral coun-tlea coun-tlea ealartes until the tax which the commleslonere f th ooontlee had levied for thla purpose became available but th etate auditor, declined de-clined to make any such transrer In that he held that such tranafer waa Illegal. The loan eommleetnnera thea negotiated ne-gotiated a loan of 110.000 from the auepenee account of the atate land office to be need for fhe purpoee ae atated and now the discovery la made that the commleieon cannot under the law make a loan for any special department but can oni make a loan for tha general fund. Further thla loan la asld to be unconstitutional un-constitutional In that It la a lending or the credit of th state to th I counties. ..At th meeting whertha loan of. I?0.000 waa negotiated, the board - Action of the'stat road eomml-eloa eomml-eloa In dsmandlag of ths dspart , ntent of flnanc and psrchaee the return to th commission of .the Ifcooo revolving fuad of the eommlaalon eom-mlaalon which It wss supposed was being used for ths smergency pur-chsses pur-chsses of th cOBwnlssloa. bat whloh It has bee a ascertained Is and has been used for another purpoee pur-poee by the department or flnsnce sad purchaae In the eetabllahlng of a general supply estsbllahment for the ststs Is the second time demand hss been mads for ths rtura' of ' teh find. Haw th department Is to return Tae fund to the atar road coram legion le-gion la a problem that etate offl-lale offl-lale aay I difficult ef solution. CASJIOT atAKB LAg. It was thought thst the board of loan commissioners might asgo-k asgo-k tiats a loan for the amount, but It has keen discovered thst the Jwloajd esssst aaaka a lean aete aay one department of tha atate, unleaa a deficit la shown. In fact, tha powera of the atate loaa commission commis-sion in found to bs restricted to msklng losns only ror ths general fund or eome speclsl matter au-thortxed au-thortxed by th leglslsturs like ths purchase ot ground to ealarge the Capitol grounds. It hss sleo been brought out thst o department has sny suthortty to trsnsfer Its runds to snother department de-partment ss hss been dene In the csss or ths stats rosd commission also msds a loaa of fsoo.ooo for ths genersl fund. How the tsngls le to be straightened straight-ened out haa not yet been determined. deter-mined. - i :